VinGroup aims to hit the US stock market in 2022

Vietnam’s conglomerate Vingroup plans to list its electric car division VinFast on the US stock exchange in the second half of 2022, raising at least three billion dollars. The company also aims to sell three times as many electric cars next year as previously planned.

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This was reported by Reuters, citing a statement from the group. According to the report, VinFast had already indicated in April that it was preparing an IPO with a valuation of 60 billion dollars and expected proceeds of at least 3 billion dollars. Converted, this is 53 billion or just under 2.7 billion euros.

Specifically, parent company Vingroup has now set up a Singapore-based holding company to push ahead with the IPO. “The new company, VinFast Singapore, is a step to turn VinFast into a global company and prepare for its U.S. IPO,” Reuters quotes. “Vingroup will be a major shareholder of VinFast Singapore.”

A new piece of information is also that VinFast is targeting global sales of 42,000 electric vehicles next year – instead of the 15,000 it had previously planned. VinFast has been selling vehicles since 2019, but the first models still have internal combustion engines. However, the company plans to expand internationally with electric cars: two electric SUVs are to be launched next year, the medium-sized VF e35 and the seven-seater VF e36. As the company confirmed in September, the two models will also be sold in Europe.

The company’s current development phase is also capital-intensive because Vingroup is expected to start building a battery cell factory for VinFast in Vietnam’s Ha Tinh province this year. According to a Reuters report from October, the plant is expected to start production from the third quarter of 2022, initially with an annual capacity of 3 GWh. An expansion to 5 GWh per year is planned by 2025.

According to Reuters information, the group plans to invest $387 million (€332 million) in the plant on a 12.6-hectare site in the central province. The location was probably not chosen by Vingroup by chance: Reuters had already reported in April that a second VinFast vehicle plant was to be built in the region.

VinFast is pursuing a multi-pronged strategy with regard to batteries: on the one hand, it plans to build its own battery plants, which, however, cannot yet cover the current demand – so cells still have to be bought in. In addition, the company has been putting out feelers in the direction of companies that are researching new battery technologies. These include Gotion High-Tech, ProLogium and StoreDot.

Update 11 April 2022

The Vietnamese electric car manufacturer VinFast has filed for its IPO in the USA. The company has not yet publically revealed further details about the listing. According to earlier information, VinFast’s US IPO is apparently targeted for the second half of 2022. The capital generated by this is to be used, among other things, to finance the construction of VinFast’s recently announced first plant in the USA.

VinFast itself writes in the short announcement that the size of the IPO and the price range have not yet been determined. Reuters, on the other hand, quotes a source familiar with the matter as saying that VinFast will probably try to raise about two billion US dollars. This is currently the equivalent of around 1.83 billion euros.

reuters.com, reuters.com, vinfastauto.com (both update)